When told that your club is set to sign a highly rated young foreign footballer, it becomes somewhat of a tradition to type ‘said’ players name into a popular video based search engine.
From there you sit back, wonder why the video creator found it necessary to set the video to a Katy Perry soundtrack, and base your whole opinion on 4:47 seconds worth of tricks, flicks and general wonder goals from the players career.
The thing with a highlights reel is that you can find 4:47 seconds worth of class in any youngsters game. I myself scored my fair share of wonder goals during my younger, fitter days, and could easily fill up that kind of time-frame. However I could also add numerous video of my miss control or the tap ins that ended up in the farmers field onto my highlights reel. It’d probably be enough to keep you entertained for days, maybe even weeks.
YouTube’ing is always a lazy and naive way to judge a player and more often than not it proves to be unfounded. For example I dare you to search for ‘Emile Heskey- Greatest goals compilation.’ Some absolute genius/student with too much time on their hands has managed to stretch that out to more than six minutes, it was so good I almost wanted to sign him on Football Manager. Thankfully in the short time it took for me to close my browser and load up the game I suddenly remembered that he was in fact shite and that the video was brainwashing me.
However, sometimes it isn’t that easy to shrug off YouTube when forming an opinion, and other types of trickery come in to focus to also try and brainwash you. For example, what if I told you that the player that your club was interested in was Spanish and came through the ranks at Barcelona? What if also told you that the first video available on the player was a casual 4:47 seconds video of him having a friendly kick around with Ronaldinho when he was aged just 12. You’re automatically excited, right?
Well that’s the position that fans of Tottenham Hotspur found themselves in during the summer of 2011 as the attacking midfielder Cristiano Ceballos, who is now old enough to have started puberty, moved to White Hart Lane after a successful trial period.
It was a move that delighted Tottenham technical co-ordinator Sherwood, who said in an interview shortly after the transfer had gone through:
“Cristian trained hard and showed some real quality when he originally spent time here towards the end of last season and was even involved in some of the first-team training.
There was other interest in him too. He needs to be patient and if he can fulfil his potential we believe he can play at the top level.”
Now 18-months down the line, Ceballos has started to make a name for himself at the club as he tries to fight his way into the first team plans of Andre Villas-Boas.
The versatile attacking midfielder, who can also put a shift in on the flanks or when playing just off the striker, has been a regular on the stats lists this season having created countless opportunities and assists as well as burying the odd goal himself for the U21’s.
In fact he was the star man in last month’s win over Midlands outfit West Bromwich Albion as he got on score sheet twice and set up the third, helping his side to an easy 4-0 win.
Basically what I’m trying to say is that the midfielder is becoming instrumental in a side that is running away with the U21 title and that sometimes YouTube IS all you need to forge an opinion on a player.
Although it’s clear that it’s not just Ceballos doing all the hard work in such a successful U21 campaign, what is clear is the ability for the player to adjust to the English game and deal with whatever is thrown at him.
A case could even be made for the Spaniard to get a chance of first time action in the coming weeks. It’s no secret that the Tottenham ranks are thread bare when it comes to attacking options, especially when your two best chances of grabbing a goal (Bale and Defoe) have found themselves on the treatment table.
And yes I am fully aware that Emmanuel Adebayor plies his trade at the club, But I’m also fully aware that the Togo international has only found the back of the net seven times in the Premier League, around about the same amount of entries he’s got into this campaigns edition of miss of the season.
But when you consider that Ceballos and his U21 pals have found the back of the net 32 times in just ten games this season you tend to ask yourself why they couldn’t help the first team squad out with a bit of flair and goal scoring presence.
There is no doubt that Ceballos has the skills to become a first team player next season, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Spaniards chance come a little earlier.
He could easily develop into a an iconic player at White Hart Lane, bringing the type of flair and creativity that Luka Modric once brought to the club.
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